Samos to Sarria

After mass, we walked back through the village to rejoin the Camino, as it again followed both the river and the road. It wasn’t long before the path left the road behind once again and we were back in quiet countryside.

As my companion and I talked and shared our experiences of life and faith, the remaining 15 or so kilometres soon passed by and we reached the edge of Sarria.

Sarria is a largish town just over 100km from Santiago and so is the starting point for a large number of pilgrims who walk the final distance to Santiago. Walking 100km is the minimum distance (as long as you also have a religious motivation or at least an attitude of searching) to qualify for the Compostela or certificate from the cathedral in Santiago which says that you have been a pilgrim on one or other of the many Caminos. Some say the Camino becomes like a motorway, and is much more commercialised from this point onwards. There is a commensurate increase in the potential number of beds but most pilgrims I’ve spoken to have booked ahead throughout the Camino, and as a minimum for this last part. Some say that there is a so-called “race for the beds” for those albergues which don’t permit reservations.

With all this in mind, I had originally intended to try and avoid Sarria and the subsequent “big” stages, each of which are a day’s walk (or 20-25km) apart because of the potential difficulty in finding a bed amongst the increased volume of pilgrims. I equally expected that I might have to start booking a day or so ahead.

However, having repositioned yesterday, I am likely now to be more or less perfectly in sync with most of those big stage towns or villages, at least for the next few days.

One of the facets of this adventure on the Camino is to take each and every day as it comes, seeking to recognise how little I am able to plan or control, and equally not seeking to rush.

In this I have sought to hold onto the Pilgrim’s Credo, written by Father Murray Bodo:

“I am not in control.
I am not in a hurry.
I walk in faith and hope.
I greet everyone with peace.
I bring back only what God gives me.”

And so, with more peace in my heart than I believed possible, I walked into Sarria at about 4pm this afternoon without having made any reservation or booking. Several other pilgrims expressed some surprise earlier in the day, when I shared that I hadn’t booked ahead but intended to stop at Sarria.

My only plan was to start by trying the Xunta de Galicia albergue, run by the Galician regional government, which do not allow pre-booking.

I found the Xunta albergue and went to the reception desk, to ask if they had any beds left. With a friendly smile, the hospitalera said yes.

I don’t recall that she actually uttered the words “of course” but I felt chastened that I had asked the question half-expecting the answer to be no. I know I should have learnt by now that God doesn’t let us down when we concede control to Him.

When I got to my assigned room, there were 10 beds, only one of which appeared to be taken, so presumably there were still another 8 spare beds at that point. Better still, my allocated bed (and most of the beds in this dormitory) were single non-bunk beds, so no top bunk for me tonight.Читать далее